Bolting into the hanger, Kate took a flying leap, trajectory aimed perfectly to land by he Marasai's open cockpit hatch. Folding into the seat and powering up the mobile suit she opened the team channel. "Apologies for my tardiness, Commander. I have no excuse." She continued running an a abbreviated pre-flight and grabbing the beam rifle from rack. "Ready to launch any time, sir," Kate concluded and sat ready, the Marasai's monoeye fixed on her CO's Barzam.

_________________On Compromise:Let's agree to respect each others views, no matter how wrong yours may be.

Pan broke his long streak of silence. "Nice ballet moves" He said taunting Stukov as he formed up to his left completing their formation. Hey grinned as he picked out the Zeon ship in the distance.

"Perfect!" Pan said with a hint of laughter as he removed his sea serpent from it's rack and pushed to the left mirroring Dolk's moves to a T.

[Leandro Alvarez]

Trying to shake of the sudden sick feeling in his stomach Leandro ordered his team to the catapults. "Remember the formation, Marasais on the launch first, we'll be your eyes out there."

As Leandro watched his wingmen step onto the catapult he couldn't shake off the feeling that he might be leading them to their deaths. He didn't dwell on that thought for too long as he too was soon flung out into space, where his unit was waiting for him.

"Nobody crosses this perimeter! We need to keep any hostile mobile suit away from the from the fleet!"

The hangar was buzzing with activity as orders were being shouted everywhere, Alex listening to it all in order to understand what was going on. From what he could immediately gather His Excellency Jamitov Hymen had been assassinated aboard the Gwadan and the fleet was springing into action to blast away the Axis forces.

He personally found it a bit suspect but well his job was to get out there and start firing away.

Closing the Hizack's cockpit and grabbing a machine gun from the weapon rack, Alex walked over to the Herakles' launch catapult.

"This is Lt. Jg Weber, launching!" he shouted as the Hizack took off into space.

Sven drummed his fingers against his knee as he waited for the Barzam to finish its start up procedure. He regretted not having spent as much time with the Mobile Suits manual beforehand. He had no misgivings about a combat field test, in terms of his piloting skills, he would have felt a tad more comfortable knowing what the Barzam was capable of though. Besides his unease he was mostly devoid of emotion. This lack of emotion actually caused a brief moment of introspection before the coming battle. Maybe it was the particular person he was, or his combat experience, or his upbringing, but it had been a long time since he had launched fearful of his chances of death. If he died, his death would be in the service of a cause greater, a cause that was nearing its fruition.

Lost in his morbid thoughts he maneuvered his Barzam over to the weapons rack grabbing a similar load out to Wolf. His attention was only broken when Ens. Elliot made her presence known over the team frequency. Frowning slightly Sven quashed his introspection for later, he had to make sure Wolf made it to the end no matter what, and that would require all the concentration he could muster.

"Holding position, captain," Mortimer grunted, turning from his station at the helm to move closer to Trent. The Kirov and the other Echo ships had reoriented slightly to face the nearest intact enemies and drifted a bit closer, so that now their main weaponry's outer range was just barely overlapping that of the distant Endra-class vessels. The captain watched as a ragged line of mobile suits glided out ahead of the fleet now that the bulk of their numbers were launched. "Sir, there's a new broadcast," Fyodor spoke up, changing the main monitor back to a communications channel. It switched from an incomplete digital view of their surroundings to a fuzzy image of Bask Om.

The interference lessened and the static obscuring his voice cleared up, and the new de jure leader of the Titans' powerful voice boomed through the bridge, "--ts, this is Captain Bask Om! I command all active fleets within two operational fields of Axis to stand down and fall back to control area one immediately!,". The burly captain was visibly angry and his tone was forceful enough to grab Trent's attention. Andrewson frowned and exhaled sharply as he moved back to see the monitor. Harsh lighting glinted on the ruby lenses of the protective goggles covering Om's eyes as he leaned closer to the camera. "Admiral Hymem's assassins will be punished, but autonomous attacks or other mutinous actions will not be tolerated! You obey orders from me, not Paptimus Scirocco!" he thundered.

Trent winced slightly at that. He felt like Bask was talking directly to him. Like he knew exactly what was going on. Andrewson could perceive a change in the bridge crew's mood as they shrank away from Bask - surely some of them wondered why he was so quick to have Echo jump to Scirocco's aid. "Sir," Gojiro said quietly, calling for the captain's attention in a hoarse whisper as if Bask could hear them, "Paptimus and his escort have escaped the AEUG pursuit and are approaching the Jupitris,". "All ships near the Gwadan, respond and change course!" Bask continued to shout above them. "Andrewson," Capt. Friday's voice slithered into the captain's ear, causing him start in surprise.

His head snapped up to one of the secondary monitors and he blew out a breath in relief when he saw that Black wasn't somehow speaking in his head. His heart racing from the situation and shock, Trent removed his hat and brushed his damp hair back. "Captain," he responded, struggling to keep his tone neutral. Bask kept right on bellowing orders in the background as Black began to speak, "Paptimus is safe, Andrewson. Echo did well - you're free to do as Bask asks now. I'll be in touch,". Mortimer glanced over at his captain, a bit surprised at the tone Friday was taking. Things were beginning to make more sense. Trent responded to Friday with a reluctant but affirmative grunt.

The side communication closed, and Black Friday's visage was replaced by tactical data. "Who put him through?" Trent asked in an irritated tone once he realized the contact hadn't been authorized. "I did, sir. The communication was on an urgent channel from the Jupitris. It seemed important," Sergei responded, looking the captain in the eye. Trent knew exactly what he meant from the look and his inflection. He felt Friday's presence weigh down on him just a little bit more. "I trust your judgment..." Trent nodded, his jaw set. Nothing much he could do about that. He almost chuckled - now he know what Bask was in for having his own men snatched out from under him.

He gestured up at the main monitor and ordered, "Connect me to the Dogosse Gier,". Sergei sat watching Trent for a moment before turning back to his duties. After a short wait, Fyodor nodded at the captain and Bask was mercifully muted and replaced by one of the flagship's bridge officers. "This is Capt. Trent of the Kirov. Taskforce Echo is preparing to comply with Capt. Om's orders. We were ensuring His Excellency's last wishes were carried out and that The O escaped the combat area," Trent explained. That was technically true at least. "Very well, captain - just make sure you get to the control area as quickly as possible. No further delays," the officer answered sternly, a look of barely contained contempt on his face. "They know," Trent thought, "They must know,". Why were they still playing games with each other? Bask Om was a brute but he wasn't stupid. What was Paptimus waiting for?

"Yes, lieutenant," Trent nodded, and the connection closed. The bridge was silent for several seconds, and it spoke volumes. "Tell all MS teams we're changing course. They'll stay deployed as a rear guard in case we're pursued," Trent finally ordered quietly. "Sir," Mortimer nodded, breaking everyone else's silence. They all went back to work, and Sergei glanced at his tired captain again before relaying the new orders to the pilots.

- Hangar -

Wolf was stepping onto one of the lower catapults as Nick was locking into an upper one when Kate finally got to the hangar and joined her team. "Apologies for my tardiness, Commander. I have no excuse," she announced herself as she snatched up a weapon and hurried into place, "Ready to launch any time, sir,". "Of course," Daren responded, his smirking face appearing in Wolf's HUD. "Hn," Ritter scoffed, "At least you're not patronizing me with a lie,". He crouched down to ready for launch, and reached out his Barzam's arm to point at Sven and Daren's suits. "Elliott, stay close to Daren. Sven you're with me," he ordered before focusing on the launch sequence.

The Christmas tree began to cycle from red to yellow, but it stopped halfway and began to flash. "What now?!" Wolf growled, slumping back in his seat. "Attention all pilots, this is the Kirov," Sergei announced, broadcasting to all of Echo's MS, "We have new orders,". As Sergei explained the controlled withdrawal and the rear guard, Wolf angrily raised the visor of his helmet and slammed a fist down on his armrest. "Sir," Daren spoke up, his cockpit still displayed in a small box in Wolf's HUD, "The closer to the Dogosse Gier and the rest of the fleet we are, the more likely it is that you will find the answers your are looking for,". Closing his visor, Wolf snarled, "Not likely,".

- Alpha Team -

Stukov ignored Pan's backhanded compliment and kept quiet as Heyden properly joined the formation. As long as both of his subordinates were doing as he asked there was no need to rein them in too hard. These men were too... unique for standard military discipline. When the new orders were broadcast, Stukov grimaced. "Tch," he muttered, scanning the area ahead of them for the best way to turn around. There were now several Gaza-Cs close enough to be distantly identified by the Griffin's sensors. After doing a quick calculation in his head, he smiled and announced to Pan and Dolk, "We will alter course here. Use these coordinates,". A long, lazy turn was outlined by his computer and sent to theirs; it would take them within the enemy's gunnery range and allow enough time for the Axis MS to briefly catch up. "Hold your fire unless we are hemmed in," he added adamantly as he accelerated to meet the Zeon head on.

"Just stay in formation and keep your spacing," Bate ordered to the rookies over the radio as his Marasai stepped onto the elevator to move to the deck. The ride took only a few seconds, and the Marasai stepped off onto the ship's deck. The catapult was still down. "Make sure your clear before you kick in your thusters." He told his team, again, for the benefit of the new pilots. Repair crews were now moving outside the ship, and it would be just like Craig to do something stupid like that. Hick was too timid to try it.

The elevator brought up Craigs' Marasai, followed by Hicks, which was good enough for Alpha. Runnels knew the drill, so he didn't need to wait for her. He kicked his Marasai off the deck, which started it floating. He waited until he was nearly level with the bridge before hitting his thrusters, shooting upward.

He was about to tell Craig to launch when Bask Om's message came across everybodies comm screens. Bate killed his foward momentum, leaving him hovering a few hundred meters above and in front of the Kalinin. He keyed another comm channel.

==================================================================

-Bridge-

"Four more minutes, sir." XO Parker's face had several smudges of something on it, grease or dirt, Nguyen wasn't sure, mixed with sweat and blood from a small gash on his forehead, but he was smiling as he finished relayed the good news to the CO.

"Good work." Marshall gave a quick nod before cutting off the connection, and once again the bridge was silent, save for the hum of the various stations, and noise from elsewhere that traveled to them. Outside, the Marasais were clustered on the deck, and Commander Bate finally got moving, but before any of the other suits could take off, Bask Om's message stopped everyone.

A moment after Om's message finish, Bate's face replaced it on the main monitor. "Orders, sir?"

Marshall paused for a moment and sighed. "Return to the ship. Keep your team on the deck until further orders."

Bate, obviously unhappy, merely nodded and ended the discussion. Outside, the red shape that was his Marasai started to return to the ship, while the other three Marasais carefully walked along the deck, avoiding the repair crews attacking the ships' power problem from the outside, as they moved into more or less random spots on the deck. Bate was back a few seconds later, and promptly stood on the foward edge of the deck. One of the other Echo teams was still moving out, but the Kalinin and its team simply waited for orders.

"Ltjg. Drossel. Gamma team launching," the young pilot declares as he braces himself moments before the catapult sends his Marasai flying. Before he can ignite his thrusters the announcement from Bask followed by orders from the bridge made him position his suit closer to the Kirov. Seeing Alpha team streaking toward the enemy, Jason's envy dies down now wanting to return back to the Kirov. Instead he awaits for further orders from Lt. Te'litha while frequently glancing down at the open text from Grace that is still lit up on the panel.

Nick was giddy with anticipation as the lights cycled down but became mute with rage when it stopped. Sergei piped in explaining the new orders but Nick didn't want to hear it. He pumped a single round into the Chistmas tree, destroying it, then unlatched from the catapult, floated up, reached out to touch the bridge, and established contact. He had been so set on getting to fight the Axis forces, that he almost viewed this action as a personal betrayal and was nearly on the verge of losing it. "Trent?" he asked, fighting to keep his voice flat and level but it was still laden with meaning, "Who do these orders come from?"

Ltjg. Kelborn

Grace was about to step away from the berth to grab a rifle when Sergei's announcement of the new orders stopped her. "Lieutenant," she called Leandro, "Should we stay in the Kirov and switch to standby? Or exit onto the deck and use the beam cannons to aid in the rearguard?" She couldn't think about her upcoming dinner seriously just yet, not while the enemy was still out there. But she still had a surge of unexpected happiness at the brief thought that it may come sooner than expected and that it probably wouldn't be ruined by either her or Jason being injured, or worse.

Buxoro, Deck

Lt. Robin & Ens. August

The elevator brought the Hizacks up to the catapult deck. Elijah was about to strap into the catapult when the new orders came in. "Okay people, stay out on deck, and alert until we are free of the engagement." said Elijah getting off the launch platform.

_________________IAN: (Shaking fist up at sky in a storm of GN particles) Science does not WORK this way, Setsuna!!!

"MS teams are either returning to their ships or holding on launch standby, sir. We'll complete our turn in two minutes," Mortimer updated the captain as he continued to monitor and control the ship's movement. "Captain, all other friendly ships have pulled back to the designated areas or are enroute," Fyodor reported. The ship had turned enough that larger thruster flares from other Titans ships were now visible to the taskforce's forward port side. Trent chuckled humorlessly when he realized they had just faced down one large red ship that wanted them dead and were now seemingly about to trade it for another - the Dogosse Gier stood out from the other distant stationary ships because of it's size and bright red color. Somewhere roughly ahead of them now was the Jupitris, and for the first time he almost wished he was headed in her direction instead.

"Alpha Team is straying close to the edge of our support range, sir. There's enough Minovsky interference that we can't reliably track their course correction. ...I think LtCmdr. Stukov is deliberately taking them closer to the enemy on their return trip," Gojiro said, turning in his chair to wait for a response. Trent exhaled slowly through his nose. "Try to contact him and tell him to hurry up. I trust his judgement but I don't want those mobile suits damaged," the captain ordered. The Griffins were still classified as data-gathering prototypes, but more importantly they were high performance suits that he wanted around as long as possible. Picking fights in situations like this didn't seem like it fit Stukov's personality, so he tried to not worry about it too much.

As Sergei went back to his comm duties to try and relay orders to Alpha, a short flash and a small puff of an explosion caused all activity on the bridge to momentarily come to a halt. "Are we taking fire?" someone shouted. "What was that? Damage teams in the hangar area stand by," Mortimer reacted, staying calm enough to continue doing his job properly. "Damage report. What the hell did that?" Trent demanded, moving closer to the windows. He recoiled from them when the intimidating bulk of Nick's Barzam floated abruptly into view, it's head and shoulders filling the forward windows. The monoeye flashed as it reached out and placed a hand on the side of the tower with a dull clunk. "Trent?" Te'Litha's voice was piped in, sounding tinny because of the touch connection, "Who do these orders come from?".

"Aw, sir! It was the light tree! Lt. Te'Litha destroyed it!" Fyodor said angrily, spinning his seat to face Trent. Ignoring Fyodor momentarily to answer Nick, Trent cleared his throat and said, "Lieutenant, the order to stand down and return to a staging zone came from Bask Om. We're bound to chain of command...". He almost ended the sentence "for the moment" but thought better of it at the last second. He waited for the bridge crew to settle down before continuing, "With Jamitov dead, Taskforce Echo's role is likely to be changed again; Bask will want to accelerate our plan to counterattack Axis and that will put us in a better position. Things are going to change rapidly from now on, Lt. Te'Litha,".

- Alpha Team -

"*zzh*quest your status and *ssss*rm return orders. Alpha, p*shsz*e respond,". Stukov frowned at the prodding from control and responded tersely, "This is Stukov. We're complying with the return order in our own way. Now stop distracting me,". He closed the shaky connection and went back to focusing on pushing his machine past the limits the Marasai had restricted him to. Dolk fanned out to his right, still trailing him slightly. "We will come close to the Zeon. Do not fire unless they engage us and attempt to cut us off," Stukov reminded his subordinates. He didn't really believe either man would hold their fire, but giving an order should be enough to get them to show restraint. The point of his little maneuver was to rattle the Zeon's cage, not destroy them outright which he had no doubt whatsoever they could easily accomplish if they set out to do so even though they were outnumbered two to one. The Gaza C did not impress him.

He forced his Griffin to speed up again, kicking back close to maximum acceleration as they drew near to the closest Axis MS. He was concentrating on his own flying and the location of the enemy so intently that it took him a moment to realize Lt. Dolk had blazed past him and was headed much closer than he ever intended to take them. Dolk, contained within his own musical world, didn't hear Stukov's clipped demand to rejoin formation as he charged the closest Gaza, which happened to belong to Gwen. At full speed he bore down on the smaller pink MS, leaning the Griffin forward in a 'predatory' attack stance. The green eyes shone bright from under the suit's large metal brow as it got closer and closer until he hit full vernier and violently spun away at the last possible second, missing her by meters.

"Feel like your time is coming fast. Keep hanging on, you just gotta last. You're gonna see I won't forget you now - Oh, you know I'm coming back for you," he called out on an open channel to her as he blazed away, getting back into formation with the other two Alpha suits again as they tried to put distance between themselves and the enemy.

Sven was just about to mount the catapult when Trent’s message was broadcasted throughout the ship. Maneuvering his Barzam back to his berth he grumbled irritably into his microphone on the team frequency. “This might be the best chance we have to hit the leadership of Zeon and they stop us?” A flash of light caught his attention as Nick slagged part of the ship. Narrowing his eyes he watched Nick’s mobile suit float upwards until he lost sight of it. Switching on his microphone again he spoke again to the team, his voice would have come through as if it were wind rustling through trees if not for the distortion the speaker system caused. “Trent out to be more strict, otherwise Te’litha will get into the habit of destroying parts of this vessel.” He knew Kate could be listening, but Sven could care less, if she tried to become a distraction he would see to it she never got the chance.

With the fleet withdrawing, it would seem that the big fight has been postponed. So taking note of the time Jason decides to return his Marasai back to the hanger without waiting for any orders. As Jason lands he closes a vid link to a person in the mess hall. "Christ...an arm and an leg..guess it's worth it," he mutters as he takes one last look at Grace's message.

~

Rushing out of the hanger and into the mess hall knocking several people over on his way to a counter where a member of the kitchen staff waits. Jason pulls out a card and flings it over to the cook. "Here's 2 months pay. Tonight you're a culinary artist so no usual slop you feed us. Captain's rations like we discussed and some of his wine from his secret stash, OK?"

Jason's attention is drawn to a secluded table in the corner where he sees another cook place a tablecloth with silverware. "Perfect....mmm too much?" he asks the slightly confused chef who shrugs his shoulders but before any reply Jason looks down and realizes that he's still in a normal suit. "Cripes."

As he leaves, he stops by a comm panel and leaves a message to Grace. -[Dinner will be served at 7.]